1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for software installation and pre-setup, and more particularly to a method for software installation and pre-setup to reduce the cost of manufacture and promote the flexibility of software installation and pre-setup.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, before shipping out a computer, a computer manufacturer installs an operating system (OS) in a storage device of the computer. The OS comprises OS drivers and OS application programs. In the process of manufacturing, the manufacturer installs an OS image file onto the hard disk of the computer. When a user powers on the computer, the computer explodes or decompress the OS image file onto the hard disk to pre-setup the OS.
In the process of manufacturing, the manufacturer also installs patch files onto the hard disk of the computer. The patch files are used for updating and correcting the OS drivers or OS application programs of the OS. Usually, the patch files are under a patch directory. After the user pre-sets up the OS, the computer copies the patch files to the locations of original files and1 replace the original files.
As usual, the shipped-out computer is bundled with a recovery CD (compact disk) and a system CD. The recovery CD comprises boot-up files and OS image files. When the computer fails to function properly due to errors such as some required files of the OS are destroyed, the user can use the recovery CD to recover the OS according to the OS image files in the recovery CD. The system CD comprises patch files. When the OS drivers or OS application programs are updated, the manufacturer stores the patch files (updated files) in the system CD. Therefore, the user can use the system CD to update OS drivers or OS application programs.
If the computer is shipped out to a multilingual country, such as Switzerland where people speak three official languages (German, French and Italian), the manufacturer has to install three OS image files onto the hard disk. In other words, German, French and Italian versions of OS image files are all required.
In addition, in order to install multiple OS image files onto the hard disk, manufacturers have to use Microsoft Multiple Operating system Preinstallation Toolkit (MPK) to format the hard disk by Microsoft-specified format standards. However, if the OS drivers or the OS application programs are updated, the updated files cannot directly replace the original file for MPK format cannot be amended. That makes file updating for both OS drivers or OS application programs an inconvenient task.
The computer has three versions of OS. When a user powers on the computer, the computer generates a selection frame for the user to select a version in need.
Besides, if the computer is shipped out to a multilingual country, taking Switzerland for example, the manufacturer has to bundle three recovery CDs to the computer. The three recovery CDs are used for storing a German OS image file, a French OS image file and an Italian OS image file respectively.
However, among three recovery CDs, only one of them can comprise boot-up files according to Microsoft's rules regarding bundle software. As a result, when the computer fails to function properly, the user has to insert the recovery CD with the boot-up files to boot the computer at first, and then change to the recovery CD having desired language version of the OS image file for recover the OS of the computer.
Furthermore, in the Switzerland example, apart from the three recovery CDs, a system CD also has to be bundled along with the computer being shipped. In total, four CDs including three-language versions recovery CD and one system CD greatly increases the burden of manufacturing cost.